Most businesses have a tone of voice. Very few ever chose it. The home page speaks formally, the button below it says “Get started”, the form error message asks you to add “your mobile number” in a chummy tone, and the automatic reply email opens with a first name. Each of those lines was written at a different moment by a different person – or shipped inside a component nobody ever opened. The result is not a stylistic offence in the literary sense; it is something more practical: uncertainty. If people cannot tell how a company talks to them, they cannot tell what to expect from it either. This article therefore avoids matters of taste. It offers decision criteria, solid figures on how formal and informal address actually land, a checklist of every place the form of address appears and almost always breaks, and a style card that fits on a single page.
A decision that is rarely made consciously
The effect of an unasked-for casual tone can be measured. In a representative survey of 1,002 people in July 2023, 37 percent said they find a company less likeable when it addresses them informally without being asked; 21 percent welcome it, the rest are undecided (forsa). That does not settle the question, because the figures flip with age: among younger respondents, 54 percent say the casual form makes a company more likeable, and 63 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds would be happy if German dropped the distinction between formal and informal address altogether (forsa). Anyone hoping to derive a universal rule from those numbers will fail – and that is the real insight. There is no correct form of address, only a fitting one.
The mistake is rarely the choice itself. The mistake is that no choice was made. A website grows in stages: core pages first, references later, a form from a template somewhere in between, then a campaign landing page, plus system texts nobody perceives as copy at all. In projects, the form of address therefore differs from the home page in three to five places without the business being aware of it (project experience). Deciding before the first line is written saves that clean-up; deciding after launch means correcting every single file. The article on the website brief shows where in a project this decision belongs.
What this article deliberately does not cover
Six criteria instead of a matter of taste
The formal-or-casual question is usually debated as a style issue and then settled by whoever has the loudest opinion. It can be decided on the facts instead. Six criteria are enough, and in most cases four of them point the same way. When they do not, that is a result too: the website then uses the formal register and a single channel is allowed to differ – more on that below.
Who decides on the customer side
Are you writing to a private individual, a purchasing department or a managing director? The more formal the decision setting, the more often a formal register is expected – including from people who are entirely casual in private.
How the team already speaks
The website should sound like the business does on the phone and in the shop. If sales conversations are informal, an entirely formal text feels distant. If they are formal, a casual site reads like a campaign that does not belong to the company.
Sector and occasion
A law firm, a tax adviser or a medical practice stand for discretion. A gym, a club or a takeaway stand for closeness. The occasion for the visit shifts expectations more strongly than the age profile alone.
Age profile of the customer base
Tolerance for the casual form drops noticeably with age: the share who find it inappropriate ranges from 7 to 19 percent depending on the group, with the highest values among people over 45 (Appinio).
Regional convention
In parts of the Alpine region, in trades and in rural areas, casual address between adults is more common than in metropolitan service markets. Check what applies in your catchment area, not what looks modern in campaigns.
Cost of switching
A change affects the website, forms, emails, quotes, invoices, signage and the phone greeting. Whoever switches should do so for several years, not for one season.
The telephone test
Sector and occasion shift the expectation
The most reliable clues come from the sector. The same survey asked where people expect a formal register and where a casual one is fine. At banks, 81 percent favour the formal form, at public authorities 84 percent, with doctors 70 percent (forsa). In a physical shop the picture is already mixed: 57 percent prefer the formal form, 21 percent the casual one, and 22 percent do not mind (forsa). In online retail the ratio flips: 31 percent consider the casual form acceptable and another 28 percent find it particularly likeable (forsa). A survey in Switzerland with 1,533 participants shows the same pattern: at the bank counter, in an advisory appointment and in an upmarket hotel, formal address is expected, while at the takeaway stand, in a physiotherapy practice and in a sports club the casual form is unproblematic (YouGov).
| Setting | What respondents expect | What follows for the website |
|---|---|---|
| Bank, insurance, financial advice | 81 percent prefer the formal form (forsa) | Formal throughout, including forms and confirmation emails |
| Public authority, agency, public body | 84 percent prefer the formal form (forsa) | Formal without exception, factual tone, no advertising language |
| Medical practice, health professions, care | 70 percent prefer the formal form (forsa) | Formal as the base register; exceptions at most in offers for children and teenagers |
| Law firm, tax adviser, expert reports | no separate figure, expectation close to banks and practices | Formal as the base register; explain terminology rather than loosen the tone |
| Local shop, trades on site | 57 percent formal, 21 percent casual, 22 percent indifferent (forsa) | Formal is the safe choice unless the team is casual anyway |
| Online retail, subscriptions, apps | 31 percent find the casual form acceptable, 28 percent likeable (forsa) | Casual is viable if it fits the brand and is carried through |
| Fitness, clubs, youth work | casual form unproblematic in sports clubs (YouGov) | Casual as the base register, formal exceptions only in statutes and legal pages |
| Restaurants, snack bars, takeaway | casual form accepted at takeaway stands (YouGov) | Match the tone to the concept: fine dining and a snack bar do not speak alike |
Sector patterns are starting points, not rules. A law firm focused on start-up advice can use the casual form if it does so consistently and stays within professional conduct rules; the limits are covered in the article on the law firm website between trust and professional rules. A club whose members have been on first-name terms for years looks oddly distant with a formal website – see the article on the club website for members and volunteers. And a restaurant decides the question through its concept rather than its audience; pointers are in the article on the restaurant website with menu and reservations.
It may differ between channels, but not within the website
The most common objection to a fixed form of address is: “We cannot be formal on Instagram.” True – and it is not necessary either. Expectations differ considerably between channels. In a survey of 4,533 participants aged 16 to 54, 82 percent of Instagram users want companies to address them informally, on Facebook around 75 percent (Appinio). In career networks the picture reverses: on LinkedIn only 41 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds want the casual form, on Xing 36 percent (Appinio) – and that is already the age group most inclined towards it. On the company website itself the field is most evenly split: around 10 percent are bothered by the casual form, 26 to 30 percent do not mind, and 19 to 26 percent find it likeable (Appinio).
Operating several channels is the rule rather than the exception: 80 percent of companies with 20 or more employees maintain at least one social network profile, up from 77 percent the year before (Bitkom). The most widely used platforms are Facebook at 48 percent, Xing at 47 percent, YouTube at 43 percent and LinkedIn at 36 percent (Bitkom). A business therefore almost always speaks across several channels at once – and it may do so in different registers. The dividing line does not run between casual and formal, it runs between channels: within one channel the form of address stays the same, and the website is one channel.
- Set one base form for the website. It applies to every page, every form, every system message and every automated email.
- Allow different registers per channel – for example casual on Instagram, formal on the website and in career networks. Write that allocation down.
- Treat campaign landing pages as part of the website, not as part of the campaign channel. Otherwise people arriving from an ad land in a different tone.
- Define the handover: when someone moves from a casual channel into the contact form, the website register applies from that point onwards.
- Review multilingual sites separately. English “you” does not carry the distinction, so the German version has to resolve it on its own.
The channel handover is the real trip hazard
Where the tone almost always breaks
Now the practical part. The form of address does not only appear in body copy; it appears in roughly a dozen places that are rarely considered while writing. That is exactly where it breaks. This is not purely a style problem: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines require components with the same function to be identified consistently (WCAG 2.2, success criterion 3.2.4, Level AA), navigation mechanisms to appear in the same relative order (WCAG 2.2, success criterion 3.2.3, Level AA) and help mechanisms to be placed consistently (WCAG 2.2, success criterion 3.2.6, Level A). Inconsistent labelling is therefore a conformance topic as well, not only a question of taste (W3C).
| Place | Typical break | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Main navigation and menu | “Your benefits” in a casual tone next to a formal menu item | Does every menu item use the same register? |
| Buttons and calls to action | “Grab yours now” against “Please request your appointment” | Are all buttons built and addressed the same way? |
| Form field labels | a casual “Your name” above a formal “Your telephone number” | Do all field labels speak in the same register? |
| Placeholders inside fields | “How can we help you out?” in an otherwise formal form | Have the grey example texts been reviewed too? |
| Error messages | “Please enter a valid email address” straight from the template | Have system messages from templates been adapted? |
| Consent and mandatory-field texts | a casual consent line under a formal form | Does the consent text match the register of the page? |
| Confirmation page after submitting | “Thanks! We will get back to you.” | Has anyone actually read the page after submission? |
| Automatic reply email | first-name greeting on an otherwise formal site | Is the salutation right in every triggered email? |
| Cookie banner and settings | a casual banner line on a formal website | Does the banner text follow the register of the site? |
| 404 and error pages | “Oops, looks like you mistyped something” | Is the error page part of editorial work or a default text? |
| Search result titles and descriptions | formal page with a casual description | Are title and description written in the base register? |
| Phone greeting, voicemail, signature | formal website, casual recorded message | Does the first sentence on the phone sound like the home page? |
Two of these places are regularly underestimated. The first is the automatic reply email: for many enquirers it is the first text a company addresses to them personally. 52 percent of online shoppers explicitly want an email service for follow-up questions (Bitkom), and 62 percent want to reach a human contact when something goes wrong (Bitkom); satisfaction there stands at 86 percent, while automated answering systems reach only 50 percent (Bitkom). Opening that contact with a template in a foreign register wastes the effect. The second underestimated place is the phone greeting, because it sits outside the website and therefore drops out of every copy review.
- Trigger every system text once for real: submit the form, provoke an error, wait for the confirmation email, run through the newsletter signup.
- Check the cookie banner in both states: the first view and the settings dialogue often come from different sources.
- Open the 404 page directly and read it – otherwise it is never seen during testing.
- Go through titles and descriptions of the most important pages, because they are read in the search result before the page itself.
- Re-record the answering machine when the website has changed its form of address.
- Include quotes, invoices and appointment confirmations: they are part of the same customer relationship.
Legal pages stay formal, and that is not a break
One exception is explicitly allowed. Imprint, privacy policy, withdrawal notice and terms and conditions stay formal even if the rest of the website is casual throughout. These texts are not aimed at your ideal customer but at an undefined public and, in a dispute, at a court. They follow statutory requirements, use fixed terminology and are often adopted unchanged in parts. A casually worded imprint does not read as approachable, it reads as unsure. Which mandatory details actually belong there is covered in the article on legal pages for imprint and privacy.
Banner and policy are two different texts
Translating jargon without losing authority
Register is more than address. It also covers how much specialist language a text assumes. The common reflex of demonstrating competence through terminology backfires on a website: whoever knows the terms is usually a competitor, while whoever is meant to enquire does not. The guidelines treat this at the highest level – unusual words should be explained (WCAG 2.2, success criterion 3.1.3, Level AAA), abbreviations should be expanded on first use (WCAG 2.2, success criterion 3.1.4, Level AAA), and reading level is a criterion of its own (WCAG 2.2, success criterion 3.1.5, Level AAA) (W3C). None of that is mandatory for Level AA conformance – it is effective nonetheless, because it reduces the number of follow-up questions.
| From the specialist register | Why the term trips people up | Wording that carries |
|---|---|---|
| We realise your project | describes an attitude rather than a service | We build, deliver and install – and name the dates up front |
| holistic solution competence | contains no verifiable statement | Planning, execution and handover from one team |
| your partner for the building envelope | industry term, not everyday language | Roof, façade and windows – from inspection to repair |
| we configure your setup | a mix of jargon and loan words | We set up the system and explain how to operate it |
| proactive support | marketing word without content | We get in touch ourselves as soon as something is due |
| onboarding process | borrowed term in otherwise plain copy | How the start works: appointment, survey, handover |
A specialist term belongs on the website when customers use it themselves to search. If it only appears because it appears in the quote, it needs a sentence beside it that translates it.
In practice this does not mean deleting terminology. Many terms are actively searched for and carry the findability of a page. The way through is doubling up: name the term, explain it in half a sentence, then continue in everyday language. The effect works twice over, because the same wording also meets expectations in the search result – how that connects is shown in the article on the about page without buzzwords.
Gender-fair wording without special characters
The third register question concerns gender-fair wording. It is socially contested: in a nationwide survey of 1,198 eligible voters, 65 percent rejected the use of gender-fair language in media and public life, while 26 percent supported it (infratest dimap). For a business this is not a matter of worldview but a craft question: the wording should exclude nobody and put nobody off. The pragmatic route runs through neutral terms rather than special characters.
Screen reader output is a further argument. Where special characters are used, the German Federal Agency for Accessibility and the German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted recommend the asterisk because it is considered the most reliably recognisable; the actual pronunciation, however, depends on the software in use and on individual configuration (Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit). Neutral terms sidestep that uncertainty entirely: they are rendered identically by any software, are more common in search queries, and can be introduced without debate in the team. Understandability remains the yardstick – it is one of the four principles of the guidelines (W3C).
- “Team” or “staff” instead of a paired form naming both genders
- “contact” or “the person handling your enquiry” instead of a gendered job title
- “customers” or direct address instead of listing both gendered nouns
- “management” instead of a gendered leadership title, “specialist” instead of a gendered occupational form
- “Anyone who would like a quote can call us” instead of a gendered third-person construction
- Direct address wherever the text previously wrote about groups of people in the third person
- Use paired forms sparingly and only in prominent places, such as the headline of a job advert
- Avoid special characters in body copy; where they are unavoidable, use the asterisk and stay consistent
Rewriting is usually the better answer
The style card on a single page
None of this helps while it lives in one person's head. The tool for that is a style card: one single page that sits next to the screen and that anyone writing for the business can read – including the temporary help announcing a promotion and the agency drafting an ad. Five components are enough. Anything beyond that does not get read.
- Form of address: one line, without conditions. “We use the formal form. On Instagram we are casual.” That answers the most frequent question.
- Six style rules: one idea per sentence. Active rather than passive. Most important first. Concrete numbers instead of adjectives. No abbreviations without explanation. No exclamation marks in body copy.
- Ten fixed terms: exactly one spelling per term, so that the same thing is called the same on every page.
- Three banned phrases: a few enforced bans work better than a long list nobody follows.
- One example sentence: a strong and a weak version of the same statement. That replaces three paragraphs of explanation.
| We write | We do not write | Why |
|---|---|---|
| quote | estimate, proposal, offer letter | one word for the same thing, including in the form |
| appointment | site visit, on-site inspection | short, understandable, recognisable in a calendar |
| consultation | intro call, get-to-know meeting | avoids three names for one and the same step |
| enquiry | getting in touch, request for contact | matches the label on the button |
| price | investment, commercial terms | veiled wording creates mistrust |
| team | workforce, personnel base | neutral, short, no paired forms |
| maintenance | servicing measure | everyday language instead of quotation language |
| repair | remedial work | the very word customers search for themselves |
| You can reach us at | Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time | states the option instead of issuing an instruction |
| We will reply by tomorrow | promptly, as soon as possible | a verifiable statement instead of a filler phrase |
- “We look forward to your enquiry” – it sits on every second website and says nothing about the business.
- “Do not hesitate to contact us” – it implies hesitation and lengthens the sentence without any gain.
- “Individual solutions for your requirements” – interchangeable, empty, usable in any industry.
The example sentence on the style card
Switching the form of address in an orderly way
If the decision goes against the existing copy, a switch makes sense – but as a project with an order of steps, not as find-and-replace. Mechanically swapping the address form reliably produces broken sentences, because possessives, verb forms and politeness formulas have to move with it. In projects, a sequence spread over a few weeks has proven workable without disrupting day-to-day operations (project experience).
- Record the decision in writing, with the reasoning and the scope per channel.
- Take stock: pages, forms, system messages, email templates, PDF documents, phone greeting.
- Convert the core pages first: home, services, contact, and the two most visited subpages.
- Follow up with system texts: field labels, placeholders, error messages, confirmation page.
- Check triggered emails by firing each one for real – enquiry, newsletter, appointment confirmation.
- Align external channels: answering machine, signatures, quotation templates, notices on the door.
- After four weeks, read a sample of ten random pages and collect the remaining deviations.
Two traps when switching
The form of address belongs in the brief
The effort a consistent tone of voice takes depends on when the decision is made. Made before the first line, it costs nothing. Made after launch, it touches every page, every form and every automated email. This is where XICflow comes in: the form of address and the style card are part of the brief before any content exists. The AI assistant then produces all copy in that same register – body text, headings, buttons, field labels, error messages, the confirmation page after submission and the automatic reply email. The system texts that stay untouched as templates in many projects are written in your register from the start. What the system covers beyond that is shown in the overview of XICflow features.
Because the form of address is stored as a setting rather than scattered across hundreds of text fields, it can also be switched later: the copy is rewritten with the same meaning instead of being replaced word by word. Legal pages deliberately stay formal. How the process runs from the first input to the finished page is shown in the overview how XICflow works; finished results with different registers can be inspected in the example websites. How this route compares with builders and agencies is set out in the article builder, agency or AI; what a build costs is on the pricing overview, and further articles on copy, structure and law are collected in the XICflow blog.
One decision, eleven places, one card